Alumni Profiles - Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley
Alumni Profiles - Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley
Alumni Profiles - Ecole Bilingue de Berkeley
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ALUMNI’S PAGE / PAGE DES ANCIENS ELEVES<br />
ALUMNI PROFILE: RYAN JONES, CLASS OF 1995<br />
I still remember the day my parents took me to my sister’s school (EB) to go through what I didn’t realize at the time was an entrance<br />
exam. I really enjoyed talking with the adults and making shapes with blocks. At the time, I was too young to really un<strong>de</strong>rstand<br />
much about school, let alone what a bilingual school was.<br />
A <strong>de</strong>ca<strong>de</strong> ago when I left EB, I would not have imagined looking back at my time there fondly. As my sister and my former<br />
classmates can tell you, foreign languages are not my strongest point, which of course is a tough spot to be in when you are an EB<br />
stu<strong>de</strong>nt. I left EB having spent many years working very hard to make it through the school. At the time, given all that I had to<br />
<strong>de</strong>dicate to the process of getting through school, I didn’t appreciate what I learned while I was there.<br />
I moved on to King Junior High School for eighth gra<strong>de</strong> and went on<br />
to <strong>Berkeley</strong> High. I have to say, the contrast of EB with King (not that<br />
<strong>Berkeley</strong> doesn’t have better than average public schools) was amazing.<br />
EB had clearly placed me ahead of my peers, something I would<br />
continue to see in the coming years. At <strong>Berkeley</strong> High, I was a varsity<br />
athlete in both Water Polo and Swimming. The hard-fought foundation<br />
of learning that had been laid during my time at EB really began to<br />
blossom. I did well aca<strong>de</strong>mically and as a whole really enjoyed my time<br />
in high school.<br />
Outsi<strong>de</strong> of school, my sister and I were lucky enough to have a parent<br />
(our father) who worked for an airline. Needless to say, we traveled a lot<br />
as a family and in later years on our own. On the road, the true value<br />
of the cultural education I earned during my time at EB often shows its<br />
true value in the most random places, as in talking in French with Germans<br />
during a train ri<strong>de</strong> across western Europe. They mistook me for a<br />
fellow European. Although I haven’t kept up my accent enough to pass<br />
for French, I can at least shed the veil of being “American” while interacting<br />
with Europeans through speaking French. Or simply the cultural<br />
and intellectual curiosity that EB endowed me with leading to conversations with Australians about their life at a cattle station in<br />
the outback, where it’s necessary to keep one type of venomous snake in or<strong>de</strong>r to ward off another.<br />
It never ceases to amaze me how much my cultural education truly has helped me. The funny thing is, it didn’t truly show its colors<br />
until I went away to college. In the fall of 1999, after a great summer spent exploring Europe, I drove across the United States to<br />
start school at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Now, for those of you who have never been to upstate New York - and<br />
I assume that is most of the EB community—it is the polar opposite of the Bay Area and <strong>Berkeley</strong>’s beautiful culture which EB<br />
embodies so well. This isn’t to say that I didn’t learn to love Troy, but moving to a small industrial revolution rust belt town, where<br />
winter days easily reach -20º wind chill, is nothing like the Bay Area. It was in Troy, where the culture is closer to Nebraska than<br />
New York City, where I truly learned the value of education from EB. I was able to really appreciate the cultural background of my<br />
classmates much more than I ever would have been able to, had I not gone to EB. Through the prism of living in Troy and looking<br />
back at my life in the Bay Area, I was able to really truly appreciate the cultural melting pot that we in the Bay Area often take<br />
for granted. My time at RPI was great. I majored in Information Technology and Finance and continued my athletic pursuits as an<br />
NCAA Division III swimmer and an inter-collegiate club water polo player.<br />
When my time at RPI came to an end in May 2003, I felt the pull of multiculturalism and moved to New York City where I joined<br />
a consulting firm and spent a year traveling to Boston—which has a culture very similar to that of <strong>Berkeley</strong>. I continue to work<br />
as a consultant based in New York City. Someday soon I plan to return to the Bay Area. I have to admit I only have so many cold<br />
winters left in me, but before I do I am hoping to follow the spirit of multiculturalism EB placed in me and take an international<br />
assignment for a year or two.<br />
WN26–31 MAR 2005<br />
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